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Blogger Aaron Potts is a new reader I didn’t even know I had! I’m thrilled to get to know this eDad through this great guest post, and hope you will shower him with attention and link love, too!
The landscape of the business marketplace continues to change and redefine itself to the point where having a “corporate” job compared to a business that you run from your home is not nearly as clear of a distinction as it used to be.
Today’s home-based business owner may actually work strictly from the comfort of their home, or their business may include tasks and responsibilities both in and out of the home environment. As the lines between a standard “job” and a home-based business continue to blur, and your responsibilities continue to grow, it is now more important than ever to redefine why you have a home-based business to begin with.
You decided to work from home for a reason, and if you ever question whether or not you should continue to grow your business versus going back to work for someone else, give yourself a quick reality check by thinking back to your original motivations. Power punch that reality check by then being genuinely grateful for the opportunities that your home-based business has provided for you.
Why did you decide to run a business from home in the first place? For most people the answer to that question would include a combination of any or all of the following:
- Scheduling freedom
- Being your own boss
- Staying at home with your children
- Making money for yourself instead of for someone else
- No commute hassles and expenses
- No unethical or unprofessional employees to contend with
- An unlimited ceiling on your financial or career success
- The ability to run errands or tend to personal tasks during the day
- More quality time with your spouse or other family members
You can probably add some of your own reasons to the list above, but the point is that by getting caught up in the actual running of your home-based business, it is easy to lose track of why you are doing it to begin with. The more your home business feels like an actual job, the harder it becomes to respect the reasons why you even have that business.
If the motivation for your business starts to wane, refer to the above list, or to your own similar list, and give consideration to the fact that by not succeeding in your business, you may have to return to a more traditional job. If so, you will at a bare minimum have to give up the freedom of choice that you presently have to create your professional and personal life around your dreams and desires.
Also, there is one more task that you can do on a daily basis - if not several times per day - that will help to keep you in the “happy to be working at home” bubble. That task is to remember to be Grateful.
No, I’m not talking about some vague or stray thought about the fact that you didn’t have to be at the office by 9:00am, or that you got to work for 5 straight hours in your pajamas. Those are potential reasons why you may enjoy working from home, but are they things that you are actually grateful for on a regular basis?
I make it a practice of never even getting out of bed in the morning without paying homage to the fact that I am getting out of bed because I choose to, not because I have to. I feel honest gratitude about the fact that rushing around getting ready for work is no longer part of my lifestyle, no matter what day of the week it is.
I practice many self improvement techniques that I also teach others via my articles and blog posts, and each and every day I am able to dedicate time to those tasks because I work at home. However, before I meditate, exercise, visualize, or say my affirmations, I give several honest and heart-felt moments to feel gratitude about the fact that I can take the time to engage in those activities.
My wife and I have 2 teenage children in the house, and since my wife (much to my eternal chagrin) works a regular day-shift job, I am the one who is home every day when the kids get home from school. Not a day goes by when I don’t experience gratitude for the fact that the “teenage situation” is handled because there is an adult available in our household 24 hours per day.
I could go on and on, but the point is not to explain my own lifestyle, but rather to give you examples of how my home-based business is not just a method to bring in money. It is a full-blown experience that I give honest-to-goodness thanks for every single time that I think about it.
Is it hard? You betcha! I regularly work 12 to 14 hour days. I am constantly juggling responsibilities. I have the daily task of deciding what business efforts will be a good return on my time investment. I manage all of the finances and customer service for my business, not to mention that I am the only “tech-geek” in my employ, so all web development, blogging, and other internet considerations also fall cleanly onto my personal task list. I am the writer, the marketer, the product developer, the PR agent, the HR manager, the CEO, COO, and CFO of my business. Now that I see it all written down, I AM the business!
However, would I trade it all in for the chance to go use 2% of my brain in order to run through the rat race for 8 hours each day to make someone else rich? I think you already know the answer to that question.
So, take a few moments to remember and then write down the reasons why you have a home-based business, and spend time each and every day being excited and inspired by your business. Give plenty of your mental resources to the simple - and daily - act of feeling honest and heart-felt gratitude for the fact that you have the opportunity to work from home.
Or, if you aren’t excited, inspired, and grateful for the fact that you own a home-based business, then ask yourself this one simple question:
Why are you even doing it then?
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Aaron Potts is the owner of the Today is that Day website and the author of the empowering eBook ‘Energy Harmonics’. His message to the world: “YOU are in charge, and don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise!“
Such a timely post, for me. The timing is special, and the message is special. Aaron goes on my RSS list (it’s already done) and my links. Thanks Aaron, for writing this, and thanks, Wendy, for whatever it was you did to get him on.
The “teenage situation” is handled by working at home? I’m sure it helps, but ‘where there’s a will there’s a way’. They just have to get out of the house to get into trouble.